An example of a conventional rotating electric machine armature core is shown in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 1999-155263, in which the armature core is structured by winding coils around tooth portions of a laminated iron core which is formed by laminating elemental iron core steel sheets having a plurality of tooth portions which are connected by joint parts and arranged in an annular shape, and then fixedly joining the elemental iron core steel sheets to a yoke portion located on an inner peripheral parts or an outer peripheral parts of the tooth portions to form a single body by compressing and deforming the laminated iron core to a predetermined outer diameter from outer peripheral directions thereof.
Another example is shown in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 1999-146581, in which the armature core is structured by winding armature coils around coil-winding pole portions of a plurality of divided cores, each of which includes a coil-winding pole portion and a divided yoke portion, and then fixedly joining the divided yoke portions of the individual divided cores to form a single body with the divided yoke portions fixed to a boss portion under conditions where joint surfaces of the divided yoke portions are magnetically connected to one another.
In the conventional rotating electric machine armature core described above with reference to Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 1999-155263, the tooth portions are fixedly joined to the yoke portion by compressing and deforming the joint parts to form a single body after winding the coils around the tooth portions which are connected to the yoke portion via the joint parts. Therefore, in a case where the core is made compact, for example, there has been a problem that it is structurally difficult to form a space for accommodating the joint parts before and after the joint parts are deformed by compression, for instance, and the scope of application of this structure is limited.
In the Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 1999-146581, on the other hand, the individual divided cores are fixedly joined by fixing the same to a boss to form a single body after winding the coils around the coil-winding pole portions of the individual divided cores. Thus, although the scope of application of this structure is not limited, there has been a problem that work for fixing the individual divided cores to the boss one by one is so complex that efficiency of assembly work for fixedly joining the divided cores into a single body decreases in this approach.
This invention has been made to solve the aforementioned problems. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a rotating electric machine armature core which makes it possible to achieve an improvement in the efficiency of assembly work for fixedly joining separate elements into a single body without limiting the scope of application of the armature core.